[Creative Cultivation Program] What is sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty? The seasoning method is written for you

Author: Xue Qingxin

Reviewer: Gao Chao

Our judgment of the taste of food is inseparable from our sense of taste. The differences in food flavors make the world of foodies more colorful.

So, what determines the flavor of food? Why do we taste different flavors when we eat? How can we prepare the flavors we want when cooking? This article will discuss these questions in detail.

Taste and smell determine flavor:

The flavor we feel when eating a certain food not only depends on the taste tasted by the taste buds on the tongue, but is also affected by some olfactory receptors.

For example, apples taste like apples, not other foods. This flavor is due to the taste buds as well as the odor molecules. If you pinch your nose and close your eyes while eating an apple, you may not be able to tell whether it is an apple or a pear.

How do we taste sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty and astringent?

The reason why we can feel different tastes is because of the stimulation of flavoring substances. Our tongue is covered with taste buds. The number of taste buds on the tongue can reach about 10,000 in early childhood. As we age, the number of taste buds will decrease.

Therefore, the elderly's sense of taste will be somewhat dulled and their sensitivity to taste will decrease.

Generally speaking, different parts of the tongue have different perceptions of taste. The front of the tongue is most sensitive to sweetness, the tip and edges of the tongue are most sensitive to saltiness, the cheeks are most sensitive to sourness, and the root of the tongue is most sensitive to bitterness.

There are five types of taste in my country, namely salty, sour, sweet, bitter and spicy. The first four are basic tastes, while spicy is quite special. Spiciness is not a taste, but a stimulating pain that fills the mouth and nose. The spicy ingredients in food are a defensive measure for some plants to protect themselves.

In addition to the above five types of taste, India also has astringent taste. Astringency is not a taste, but a sense of touch. For example, foods containing tannic acid will feel astringent when they touch the tongue, because tannic acid will cause the protein in the saliva to clump, thereby increasing the surface friction. The less mature the food, the higher the tannic acid content, and the more astringent it will taste.

The astringent components in food are also a defense method for plants to prevent themselves from being eaten by animals before they are mature (because this would cause them to "die young", be unable to spread mature seeds, and have no offspring).

In addition, there is another particularly interesting thing: cats cannot sense sweetness. Studies have shown that the reason why cats cannot sense sweetness may be that they lack a sensory system for tasting sugar, and because the sweet taste receptor gene has undergone pseudogenesis, they are indifferent to sweeteners.

In addition, sweetness seems to be a little "relative". When you are thirsty, you will feel sweet when you drink water. After tasting the saltiness of salt, you will also feel sweet when you drink water. If you don't believe me, try it carefully.

Common flavors:

If you want to make your dishes delicious, knowing how to season is a skill that "good cooks" must have. Here are some common flavor mixing methods:

Spicy: This is the favorite flavor of many friends. It tastes very stimulating, especially Sichuan cuisine, which is very spicy. The spicy part of spicy refers to the peppercorns, and the spicy part refers to the chili peppers and chili oil, which are combined with saltiness and umami. Since temperature affects the degree of spiciness, the higher the temperature, the spicier it is, so there are differences in the preparation of cold dishes and hot dishes.

Cold dish: 250 grams of ingredients, 42 grams of chili oil, 5 grams of pepper powder, with sugar, soy sauce and MSG as auxiliary ingredients.

Hot dish: 250 grams of ingredients, 35 grams of chili oil, 4 grams of pepper powder, and other side dishes.

If you are mixing cold dishes, you only need to mix all the seasonings and pour them on the ingredients. However, if you are mixing hot dishes, you need to fry the chili oil or chili first, then add the ingredients and fry until cooked, add a little sugar, salt, MSG, etc., and sprinkle the pepper powder on the dishes after they are cooked. This is to avoid the numbing taste being reduced during the heating process and affecting the taste.

Garlic flavor: This flavor is spicy, such as garlic pork slices, garlic eggplant, garlic scallops, etc. Purple garlic is recommended. The general cold dish preparation method is: 100 grams of garlic, 30 grams of hot soup, 8 grams of soy sauce, 2 grams of salt, 3 grams of MSG, and 10 grams of sesame oil.

You need to use hot soup to dissolve salt and MSG first, and then add garlic paste after cooling to prevent the garlic flavor from evaporating. If you are eating alone, it is recommended to halve the amount to avoid excessive sodium intake.

Hot and sour flavor: Hot and sour flavor is also a very popular flavor, mainly used in soup dishes. For example, hot and sour soup, vinegar and pepper mandarin fish, hot and sour tendon, etc. The sour taste naturally comes from vinegar, but the spiciness here does not come from chili peppers, but pepper powder.

The general method of mixing is: 30 grams of vinegar, 5 grams of pepper, 30 grams of sesame oil, and 1000 grams of soup. Add salt first, boil it, then add vinegar. Put the pepper and sesame oil in other containers and pour them directly into the soup after it is cooked.

Sweet and sour flavor: Sweet and sour pork tenderloin, sweet and sour spareribs, sweet and sour fish, etc. are dishes that many people like. Preparation method: 55% water, 23% sugar, 6% soy sauce, 10% vinegar, 4% onion, ginger and garlic. You can also slightly adjust it according to your own taste.

Ketchup flavor: This flavor is mainly used for fried dishes, such as ketchup prawns and ketchup fish. Preparation method: 45% water, 25% ketchup, 20% sugar, 4% white vinegar, 1.5% salt, 4.5% onion, ginger and garlic.

Fish flavor: The most familiar one is fish-flavored pork shreds. Preparation method: Pixian bean paste 0.5%, soy sauce 0.3%, sugar 0.7%, MSG 0.1%, vinegar 0.7%, onion, ginger and garlic 0.3% each. Pixian bean paste is the main flavor, and it must be stir-fried to bring out the fragrance.

Scallion oil flavor: Scallion oil noodles are simply delicious! Preparation method: 4% salt, 25% scallion, 70% sesame oil, 1% MSG. Chop the scallion into small pieces and put them in a bowl. Heat the sesame oil and pour it directly on the chopped scallion. Let it cool slightly, add salt and MSG, and stir well.

Summarize:

Taste is particularly important for tasting food, and it also allows us to experience another kind of beauty in the world. Master the seasoning skills and enjoy more delicious food.

References:

[1] Li X, Li W, Wang H, Cao J, Maehashi K, Huang L, Bachmanov AA, Reed DR, Legrand-Defretin V, Beauchamp GK, Brand JG. Pseudogenization of a sweet-receptor gene accounts for cats' indifference toward sugar. PLoS Genet. 2005 Jul;1(1):27-35. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.0010003. Epub 2005 Jul 25. PMID: 16103917; PMCID: PMC1183522.

[2] Harold Mackey, author, translated by Cai Chengzhi. Food and Cooking: Vegetables, Fruits, Spices, and Grains. Beijing Fine Arts Photography Publishing House. August 2013.

[2] Zhou Xiaoyan. Cooking Technology[M]. China Textile Press. 2008.7

This article is produced by the Science Popularization China-Creation Cultivation Program. Please indicate the source when reprinting